Liability is one of the most important words in the field of law. It essentially means legal responsibility for one’s actions or the omissions thereof. By failing to meet these responsibilities, a person or entity exposes himself/herself/itself to a lawsuit for whatever damage that may result from such failure; or risks being served with a court order to meet such responsibilities.
Liability is one of the legal aspect that everyone should not only be interested in but also ensure that they are well versed in it to avoid finding themselves on the wrong side of the law. Although many people are aware that ignorance is no defence in law, very few take the necessary steps towards fighting that ignorance. Being ignorant of your liability is particularly extremely dangerous because liability will occur regardless of whether your actions are intentional or not.
Take tax liability, for instance. Failure to fully understand and fulfil your tax obligations could expose you to a very serious confrontation with the Internal Revenue Services (IRS). This is one legal battle that you are not very likely to win since the ISR, unlike you, is well informed about your tax liability.
I have an interest in liability because of its wide scope and the risk involved in failing to fulfil the requirements of liability. Unless one is cautious, they are likely to break the law unknowingly. It is important to know that there are many ways in which liability may occur, either at the state level or federal level of government. Equally important to understand is the fact that liability is mostly civil; but it may also be criminal at times. Under state law, liability that is civil in nature is called a “tort”, which is basically a legal injury caused to a person or a person’s property by another person’s actions arising from the violation of one’s legal duty (del Carmen et al., 2001; Neubauer, 2002) . The federal level of liability is mostly used by persons suing for damages against state.
In conclusion, considering the scope of this term, your knowledge on it may be just the tip of the iceberg. It is extremely necessary to have a better understanding of what liability in its totality entails.
Reference
Hanser, R. D. (2009). Community corrections. SAGE Publications Ltd.
